Can you handle mornings without a brew? No? Multiply that. Imagine an entire population under a cloud of lethargy, unable to kick start their days. Now introduce coffee. Bingo. The brain moves into over-drive and it's time for empire building. So goes Stewart Lee Allen's crazy theory. Only thing is, after retracing coffee's journey to world domination – by train, rickshaw, cargo freighter and donkey – he has plenty of evidence to back it up. Stewart Lee Allen has filtered...
From the forbidden fruit of the Old Testament to the numerous laws broken at Francois Mitterand's final meal, In the Devil's Garden is a mouth-watering history of food taboos from around the world – a smorgasbord of culinary titbits to spice up any after-dinner conversation. In a history peppered with religious extremists who would rather starve to death than violate ancient taboos, and in an age when half the world's population – from cow-loving Hindus to Kosher Jews and Western...
